Met to pay out millions over London riots looting

Burnt: Firefighters failed to save the Sony Distribution Centre in Enfield, North London

The Met has been told to pay a multi-million pound bill for the destruction of a Sony warehouse during the 2011 riots.

A High Court judge rejected the police force’s claims that the looting and arson did not constitute a riot under 130-year-old legislation.

The Sony distribution centre in Enfield Lock was attacked on August 8 by a gang of 25 armed youths from a nearby housing estate.

In just three minutes, they broke in, looted the contents and used firebombs to torch the 260,000 sq ft building which burned for 10 days, the court heard. Reports said that more than three million CDs were destroyed.

When police refused to pay for the damage insurers Mitsui Sumitomo and Royal and Sun Alliance took the Mayor’s Office to the High Court.

Under the 1886 Riot (Damages) Act, police are liable for damages caused during riots defined as involving more than 12 people “being riotously and tumultuously assembled”.

Lawyers representing the Mayor said that there had been no confrontation with the police during the break-in, which had been a “planned criminal enterprise”.

But in his ruling handed down today Mr Justice Flaux said that, although it was clearly a planned raid, “this was hardly a systematic burglary”.

“The behaviour of the group throughout the period … can probably and objectively be described as the behaviour of an agitated, excited and volatile group, not the behaviour of a gang of professional thieves,” he said.

The judge ruled that the losses claimed for the destruction of the warehouse and its contents had been caused by people “riotously and tumultuously assembled together” under the meaning of the Act. But he ruled out claims “for consequential losses”.

In May, the Government announced a review of the Act to re-examine the criteria for police compensation which could lead to changes in the legal definition of a riot.